Simulation study demonstrates extended operational lifespan in wind turbine main shaft bearings, indicating substantially improved durability for high-power turbines.
Key Points
To design and evaluate a novel rolling-sliding hybrid bearing that mitigates localized stress, overheating, and fatigue in high-power wind turbine main shafts under low-speed, heavy-load conditions.
Optimized structural parameters to establish a sliding bearing length-to-diameter ratio of 1.4 and an initial radial clearance of 400 μm.
Used the Reynolds equation and static equilibrium calculations to model hydrodynamic load sharing, eccentricity ratio, and attitude angle across operating speeds of 3 to 16 rpm.
The modified rating life reached 43.52 years at 8 rpm and 35.43 years at 10 rpm (improvement factors of 4.9 and 5.0, respectively), compared to 8.89 years and 7.11 years for conventional pure rolling bearings.
Across the broader 3 to 16 rpm range, the average modified rating life reached approximately 23.58 to 23.79 years for the hybrid designs versus 9.55 years for pure rolling bearings.